Happy Almost New Year!

 

It is almost New Year's here in China.  We have 4 and 1/2 hours left to go.  Michael and I are heading out in a bit.  I just got over being sick and now Michael is sick, but we are still going to try and ring in the New Year's in Nanjing at one of our favorite restaurant/bars.  I thought I would try and post a few pics from our Christmas in Hong Kong.  I have not posted in a bit because I was under the weather.  We hope all our friends and family have a wonderful New Year!

Michael and I at our Christmas dinner.  It was yummy!

here is our main course...Turkey, potatoes, roasted chestnuts and some other stuff...it was DELICIOUS!  I really wanted turkey and we found it!

this is the Italian restaurant we ate at for Christmas dinner

cruising around Victoria Harbor

the business building were all lit up so pretty and they had an awesome laser light show

very crowded streets in Hong Kong

Hey Yo! frozen yogurt...we did not get any, but Michael for sure had to get his pic taken in front of the sign

a huge lighted made from Ferrero Rocher candy...it was the real thing...it said not to take any, but you could see where people had taken some

 I just loved our hotel in Hong Kong, it is called the Luxe Manor.  It was decorated based on surrealism, that is what the brochure said.  So it was totally quirky and cool.  I loved it because I am into all that quirky stuff.  It was the coolest decorated hotel I have ever been to.

cool puppy lamps

faux frames with no pics

the t.v. was framed beautifully..I am easily impressed ☺

I will be back after the New Year with more pics.  I have a lot still to share from our trips to Shanghai and Beijing. 

Up all night in China....

Hello out there.  It is almost 5 am here in China and I am wide awake.  I have been since 4 am.  Happy Christmas Eve to me. ☺ And Happy Christmas Eve to everyone out there reading this.

I did not think I would get a chance to write while we were away, but when you struggle with mild insomnia and forget your melatonin and over the counter sleeping pills, this is what happens.  I have plenty of time before Michael wakes up to write write write away! ☺

We made it to Hong Kong and it is really awesome.  Being ruled or owned, I am not sure of the technical term, for 99 years by the British makes it a nice place for English speakers to come.  Everyone we have spoken to speaks very good English.  In Nanjing 99 % of the people we speak to do not speak English, so it is a nice change of pace. 

What is not a nice change of pace is how many people are here.  I guess Hong Kong is a popular Christmas getaway because not only is it warm here, but it is a shopping mecca.  A guy we met called it something...shopper's paradise or shopper's playground.  I can't remember, but he said it was because there is no tax here.  And in China (side note:  Hong Kong is part of China but not part of China or so I am told....I am sure you can find all the info about it on the internet)  Oh back to my point... in China or the other part of China there is a very heavy tax, so shopping here is kind of like shopping in America, but on steroids.  There are stores EVERYWHERE.  Especially the area we are staying in, it is just store after store after store.  Being the shopper that I am,  I for sure am a kid in a candy store.  Luckily I have a husband who is generous, but also manages the money, so everything is under control people. ☺

Here is a picture of the people on the street.  I know it is kind of dark, but can you see the concentration of people!  Definitely the busiest city I have ever been to.

The other nice thing about Hong Kong is that there is American food EVERYWHERE...YUM YUM!  So we had a burger for dinner but for lunch we had Sushi.  I know...not American, but we really like sushi and we have great sushi back in Detroit.  In Nanjing, not so much. 

Our first meal in Hong Kong...Nom Nom!!!

 

 

We are both happy we came here for Christmas because it seems more like the holidays here than it did back in Nanjing.  But it still does not feel exactly the same because of course our friends and family are not here.  We miss you all very much.  And we pray that you are all enjoying this holiday season. 

Oh and lastly, Michael is getting the famous Hong Kong "suit in 24 hours."  He found a place when we got here yesterday.  By the time he found the place it was 6ish.  He picked a fabric and they measured him and said come back in an hour.  He went back and they already had the suit cut out of the fabric and ready to fit on him.  It was not nearly done, but done enough to make sure it fit and they said it would be fully done by 5pm today!  Amazing right!  And they can make stuff for woman as well.  And the price is less than probably any decent suit he could find back in the states.  If it turns out good, he already plans on coming back to get another one, maybe next holiday.  I will post pictures when it is done and I am sure it will be great.  Michael always looks good in a suit!

Merry Christmas from China!

photo courtesy of our friend Brian!

Hello to all our friends and family!  We wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and A Very Blessed New Year from China! 

It has been a very crazy year from us, going from the suburbs of Detroit to China.  Neither of us would have ever thought that we would live in China, but the opportunity presented itself and we both felt God pushing us in this direction, so here we are.

We have only been here 3 months, so we still feel like babies learning to walk. ☺  But surprisingly we are adjusting better than expected.  The tough things for us are: 1. being away from friends and family 2. not knowing the language 3. adjusting to the food - more so for me than Michael ☺ he is a much more adventurous eater than I.  But other than that, we are doing fairly well. 

We are very blessed to have met some wonderful people that have become our friends.  And since everyone went back home for the holidays,  I am definitely missing them because hanging out with my new friends is what helps fill my days. For me,  I am still looking to God for guidance and direction in my life.  Back home I had just gotten a job that I loved, working with the homeless and it felt like that was exactly where I was supposed to be.  So in the New Year please pray that God guides me as I figure out my place here in Nanjing.

Michael has been doing great at his job!  He amazes me everyday because he works harder than anyone I know.  He never complains even though most days he works 12 hour + and travels as well.  He has little adjustments, like learning how to communicate with people who's native language is not English but I have met his team several times and they are great guys.  Michael feels blessed to have them on his team and I think together they will help each other grow. 

We have been very blessed with a great driver whose name is Yi and great house help.  Her name is Xiao Li.  They really take care of us like we are their kids.  They try and teach us the language.  Xiao Li cooks great meals for us and when she is around she will not let me lift a finger.  It was hard to get used to at first, but I think I have adjusted to that. ☺  In a country where labor is very cheap, Yi and Xiao Li inspire us everyday.  Xiao Li especially works very hard.  Because this house has 5 flights of stairs, it is a real chore to clean this place.  They remind me us of the type of people God wants us to be....serving others selflessly, no matter what the cost. 

Coco and Willow have adjusted to China as well.  They got here a little stinky and a lot skinnier than when we left them.  But they have regained every pound and are back to their old selves...almost.  Willow loves the house.  She loves running up and down the stairs.  She loves hanging her head over the stairwell and peeping around.  Coco has not fared so well.  Her bum legs do not like the stairs and many days she is limping around the house, but she is ok.  And for any strangers reading this blog, these are pets I am talking about...not kids. ☺  Thought I should clarify.

So we are excited to see what God has planned for us in 2012.  We have felt very blessed this past year to have great friends and family who sent us off to China with love and support.  We feel blessed to have this opportunity to live in a new culture, meet new people and see new places.  Our hope for the New Year is that we continue to let God be the center of our lives.  And that we may pass along the blessings that God has given to us. 

We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and A Blessed New Year.

Peace ☮ Love ♥ Hope

Kim and Mike

What day is it?

Hello everyone!  Sorry I have not been writing in my blog.  We have been away and just got home.  Our friend Brian came to visit us and we have been traveling around the country.  We met him in Shanghai and stayed there for a few days.  Then we were off to Beijing to see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and Tienanmen Square.  Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City were cool, but the Great Wall is AMAZING!  It is really breath taking and to think it was made by hand.  The workers had to carry all those stones up the mountain.  Many people died, so our tour guide said it is also know as the world's largest cemetery because so many people died while constructing it and they would just be encased or buried in the wall. 

We are now back home in Nanjing, Brian will be here for a few days and then head back home to MI.  For Christmas Michael and I decided to head to Hong Kong.  I am looking forward to that.

This will be our first Christmas in China, away from our friends and family.  It has been kind of hard because it does not feel like Christmas to me.  I am pleasantly surprised that their are some malls that have Christmas decorations up and some of the stores are playing Christmas music, but Christmas is definitely not hyped up to nearly the extent that it is in the United States and when you don't have it....you miss it.  Because I am not working and do not have Christmas shopping to do, I never know what day it is.  I cannot believe it is December 19th.  It does not feel like it. 

That is one reason we are going to Hong Kong, for a change of pace and to get our minds off not being with our friends and family.  It has been a real treat having Brian in town.  We feel blessed to have such great friends who are willing to come all the way to China to see us.  Having Brian here has been a good distraction. 

I will have a lot of pics to post when I have more time, but for now I will leave you with a couple I took from my phone.

Me in the Forbidden City...it was FREEZING!!!

me by the GREAT WALL....still Freezing ;o) but it was a sunny day, so that helped!

Kool-aid Cake and flowers...

Sadly Michael was out of town on business all week, so he missed my first birthday in China. ;o(  He felt bad and I am used to him traveling now, but I was still a bit disappointed but I got over it. We are at the age where we do not have to celebrate on the exact day, ya know?  ;o)  And him are I are not huge birthday people, we like to just do dinner together or something like that.

But on the day of my birthday the ladies here wanted to take me out to lunch.  They were going to be picking me up, so I did not have to use our driver.  I was sitting in our office typing emails and the phone rang.  It was Yi, our driver.  I was thinking...oh no, he is calling because he wants to work today and I do not need him.  He was not getting many hours that week because Michael was gone and the drivers do like to get many hours in.  My mandarin is still bu hao (not good) ;o) so I was like how am I going to tell him.  So I was on the phone saying, in my broken mandarin, I do not need you today, but I do need you tomorrow.  He was saying ...no no no...I did not know what was going on.  Then I look out the window and see him and I was like, Oh man..he just showed up, he must really want to work.  So I run downstairs to "talk" to him with my google translate app on my iPhone ;o) and before I can start he pulls out flowers and a cake! 

Yi says...flowers from Mei Ke (Michael's name in Chinese)...cake from wo!(me in Chinese) ;o) SO cute! It was a nice surprise from my husband and from Yi.

CoCo enjoying the flowers from Michael ;o)

the Cake!

Gorgeous, right?  And it made me almost cry thinking that Yi spent his hard earned money on me.  It was SO thoughtful.  The thing about Chinese cakes are, they look Great, but the taste, not so great.  I thought this one tasted like grape Kool-aid.  One of the other ladies thought cough medicine and I think she was more on the money. 

This was the hack job I did on the cake.  It was hard to cut a slice ;o)  I was just kind of hacking away at it wherever I could.

First Birthdays in China!

So Michael and  I have birthdays exactly one week apart.  We celebrated this past weekend because Michael will be out of town for my birthday.  We found this really great restaurant and it was YUMMY! It is called Eminence Cellar Gourmet Wine Bar.  We definitely recommend it to anyone in Nanjing looking for a change of pace from the Chinese Cuisine.  It is definitely a nice place for a date night.

swan puff pastries with smoked salmon...SUPER YUM!

salmon tartare with quail egg and basil pesto..YUM!

escargot...VERY YUM!

mushroom bisque...YUM!

Filet and prawn..MMMM!

dessert was like panna cotta ..delicious!

So this was a funny story.  This kid was sitting at a table, kind of kiddy corner from us.  He was peeping over his chair, as you can see in the pic above and he was staring at me for like over a 1/2 an hour.  You would have thought he was looking at Michael, because normally they are fascinated to see a white person,  but no he was looking at me because I kept looking at him and catching his eye.  Then he started raising his eye brows at me....it was funny.   I wondered what was going on because he was sitting at a table with a guy, but the guy was not eating.  And the waitress would come over and ask the kid what he wanted and bring it back to him.  The kid would walk over to the bar and grab what he wanted.  It was very unusual.  I was thinking this must be some richy rich kid who was just be baby sat by a body guard or something and his every whim was being catered to.  He was staring for so long, that I finally motioned for him to come over and he did.  He spoke a little bit of english, so we chatted about how old we were and he asked what my hobbies are.  After he left the waitress came over and said he was the owners son.  Ahhhh....that made sense.  Anyway, he was super cute and it made the night interesting.

here he is from behind the chair! ;o)

Today it seems like fall has hit Nanjing.  It has been pretty much 70 degrees + since we have gotten here.  But today it is cold and raining.  It is dark and windy.  The leaves are falling off the trees and it reminds me of home. 

It is a good day to think about my time here in Nanjing. 

I was running errands today and as I was in the back seat looking out the window I realized how many things I take for granted.  I love looking out the window as we drive along and I cannot take in the sights and sounds quick enough.  I love the millions of little shops.  I wonder what is in them and if there is something cool that I cannot find anywhere else and I just know that it is going to be so inexpensive, so I will totally need it.  But then we pass by quickly and the store goes out of sight it will be nearly impossible to go to that store because I cannot read the name of the store and I am not able to communicate quickly enough with my driver to tell him..."Yi, can you bring me back to this area tomorrow because I want to go back to that cute store." 

Communication is something that I have taken for granted.  The ability to read and write and speak your thoughts is a priceless gift.  As we drive by store after store and sign after sign, I have no idea what they say.  When I am in the store, I pick up products and I have no idea what they are because I cannot read the package. 

I will say that thanks to technology, I am able to get by better than I expected, but it is still challenging and frustrating at times.  But because of things like Google translate and another app I have that takes a picture of the Chinese text and translates it,  I do OK at best.  But Google translate does not always translate correctly and the text reader sometimes does not work correctly, so they are far from perfect. 

So I thought about people who cannot read or write or see or hear or speak.  And how to a very small degree, I feel like that some days. 

I suspected that my time in China would make me better appreciate my life in America and in the 2 months that we have been here, that suspicion has come true. 

I also take for granted being able to be get from place to place in a car that is warm or cool according the weather outside.  I am protected from the elements.  I get to my destination dry and warm.  I think about Ayi and how she drives an hour to get to our home, on a scooter.  She is never late and is always happy.  I don't know many people who would drive as far as she does, in the rain and cold, to get to a job where she works harder than almost anyone I have ever met.  She cooks and cleans and everything in between and does not make nearly what an equivalent person in the U.S. would get paid.  It makes me realize how spoiled I am and how selfish my human nature can be.  It is only by the grace and mercy of God that I have the life that I have and I realized that before, but I realize it more and more with each passing day.

I also took for granted being able to turn my faucet on and drink the water.  I never worried that I might get sick or that there might be something in the water that would hurt me.  Here we get our water delivered.  And some people do not have the luxury of being able to buy bottled water.  And I know in other parts of the world the access to clean drinking water is even more limited.  So for sure I appreciate clean, running water more than I did.

So those are just a few of my thoughts today.  As each day passes, I am sure that my life here will continue to make me appreciate my life back home more and more.  But I still enjoy my life here and would not trade this experience for anything.  I think that it is already changing me from the inside out. 

Bowling and birds...

We went bowling this weekend.  It was fun.  It was the same bowling as in America, but not the same experience.  The bowling alley only had 5 lanes total, I believe.  And the lanes, we are thinking, were not made out of wood but some other fake wood material.  When the ball hit the floor it was really loud and the lanes were definitely warped.  The ball pretty much just went to the left.  The floor was also super slippery, so Michael did fall on his booty once! ;o)  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that.  But other people almost fell as well, so it was not just Michael.  Overall it was a great time and we will definitely be going back.

Michael showing off his form

This is Pete bowling...in this pic you can see all 5 bowling lanes and that night I think that only 4 were working

here was the group who was waiting for our lanes...they were practicing in the 2 other lanes that were open...and as you they all just stand around on the "wood" while a person bowls, they just stood in like a big cluster.  we saw one person throw the bowling ball backwards, someone else throw the ball in the wrong laneand one time I looked up and the ball was rolling the wrong way down the lane, not sure what happened there

here are some birds I saw for sale this weekend.  you see a lot of birds for sale here....I think people like them as pets

they were really cute and pretty

this guys was catching them and putting them into smaller individual cages...it looks like someone was buying about 20

First Thanksgiving in Nanjing!

Michael and I had a wonderful 1st Thanksgiving in China!  And that would be because of all of our new friends.  The meal was wonderful and the company even better.  Thanksgiving was great but feels different than Thanksgiving in the United States. The day started with Angela, Carol and I prepping for the 13 people who were to come over to Pete and Angela's place after work.  So that was the first difference, it is obviously not a holiday here, so it was weird Michael having to work yesterday and today. 

After prepping for a few hours, I had to come back to my place because Dr. Zheng was coming over to give me my weekly massage!  That is difference number 2...no weekly massage in the U.S!!!  I already know I will miss my weekly massage.  And sometimes I get more than one massage a week.  Dr. Zheng does full body massage...very therapeutic.  He asks if you have anything that is bothering you...shoulder, back, feet, etc...and he will work more on those parts and let me tell you he can really work out any kinks.  But sometimes I also get a foot massage at Blind Massage.  It is an hour long foot massage for $10 and sometimes I also go and get one of those.  Or this week for example I am going to try and get massage cupping.  In one of my post I showed how I had gotten cupping done.  But the first time I did it, they just stick the cups to your back and leave them on, but today I am going to try and get the one where they stick the cup to your back and then pull it around.  Should be interesting, I will keep you all posted. 

Oh back to Thanksgiving....so after coming home to get my massage, I went back to Angela's and finished getting dinner ready.  At that point people started arriving and we all ate, drank and were very merry!!!  It was a wonderful time...the food was great.  Pete and Angela are awesome hosts and we cannot thank them enough for letting us be a part of their Thanksgiving in China. 

I made it through with only a few tears that day, as I thought about my friends and family at home.  Now Christmas is right around the corner.  Luckily our shipment from the U.S. came a few days ago, so I will be able to start decorating soon.

Here are some pics from our first Thanksgiving in Nanjing!!!!

Ang with 1 of the 2 turkeys she cooked

Carol and Ang

Ang and Matthew

Carol, her hubs Gordon and Morgan

Michael and Carms...fellow Italians!

Pete and Rita

Gordon carving the Turkey

The whole gang!

Ang and I with a turkey in the middle

My thanksgiving plate...complete with Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, green bean casserole, cauliflower, and roll with butter, oh and gravy....NOT TOO SHABBY!!!!